Building With Style: Avoiding Boring Siding

Most house builders and designers
select a siding material, decide on an
average spacing or board width, and
apply the material uniformly over the
entire building.
While this approach is consistent
with formal, rational styles of architecture,
such as Georgian and Modernistic,
the Romantic styles – such as
Queen Anne, Stick, or Shingle –
require more freedom and imagination
in the use of siding. Designers and
builders who wish to evoke late 19thcentury
Romantic styles should be
able to draw on the variety of patterns
possible with sidings, shingles, and
boards.
Inventory of Possibilities
You can vary the pattern of exterior
cladding in a number of ways.
Orientation of edges. Joints or overlaps
can run horizontally, vertically,
diagonally, or be arranged in